The Light of Day
by Liuid
Summary: Selim has been blind for as long as he can remember. SAO promises to change that. However, it might be a little more than he bargained for. Follows OC's Selim and his sister as he adapts to his blindness. Follows Canon. Lots of interaction with main characters of SAO. Complete and utter rewrite of "the Wind Also Cries"
1. A Light in the Darkness

**Yo, this is going to be a completely new story for the "The Wind Also Cries." BTW I hated the original after rereading it. It really sucked. Anyways, I've been reading Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Vonnegut and I've decided to try out some of their writing style. It's pretty interesting actually, barebones descriptions that delve into the essence of the work without detracting from anything. Basically, the complete opposite of what I've been doing.**

 **I won't be doing it to such an extreme degree, but I'll be trying it out somewhat.**

 **I'm also planning on being way less edgy. I think I've gotten over that phase. And no more first person. Like, what was I thinking? I swear I'm mentally insane sometimes.**

 **Tell me what you think. Happy reading!**

 **(Also, I figure that this is a prime time to get ALL the views, since everyone is on hiatus rn prob because of AP testing and stuff. Also, KnightEstoc just finished book 2 of Nightblade IV, so he won't be posting for a while. MWAHAHAHAHA! Lol jk, I'm writing this as an experiment)**

"... Qg7 checkmate."

Lyra stared at the chessboard for a long moment before glancing at her brother lying on the bed and gave a rueful grin. "How do you do it?" she asked, half incredulously. "We've been playing for years, and I think that I've won a grand total of six games." She paused. " _And_ you don't look at a chessboard when you play."

Selim smirked. "I guess when you don't have anything better to do than lie around all day, you're bound to get good at _something._ " He had intended for the comment to be light-hearted, but some bitterness must have slipped through. Even if he couldn't see her, he felt Lyra's worried gaze pierce through him.

"Selim-" Lyra began, before Selim cut her off.

"I'm fine," he declared, swinging himself into sitting position. "Really. And besides," he added, almost dreamily, "SAO is playable in..."

Lyra finished for him almost instinctively. "Thirteen minutes."

Selim sighed dreamily.

Lyra laughed happily. "You know, I never thought I'd be worried about you getting addicted to a video game."

"Now I can finally join the brainless mass that is teenage boys," he said with a grin. But despite the jesting, they both knew that SAO was Selim's biggest chance at "normalcy." And for once, the gods had been kind and granted them two copies of Sword Art Online that sat on Selim's bedside table.

A comfortable silence filled the room.

Suddenly, Selim spoke up. "Two minutes left. We should get ready."

Lyra rolled her eyes, mostly for her own benefit since Selim couldn't see her. "Good god, have you been counting this whole time?" Even still, she could detect the hungry anticipation in Selim's normally deadpan voice. She couldn't help but feel the same restlessness. If this actually did work, it would unlock a whole new realm of possibilities for Selim…

Lyra was awakened from her thoughts as she heard Selim awkwardly fumbling to navigate the NerveGear's straps, swearing under his breath as he pinched one of his fingers by accident. She walked up to him, giggling softly, gently pushed his hands away and fastened the black helmet onto his head.

"I'm not a baby, you know," Selim whined, but obliged anyways. Lyra deftly put on her own NerveGear and lay down in her own bed across from him. She heard a thump as Selim flopped onto his back.

"Thirty seconds remaining," she called towards Selim. He merely grunted in response, but Lyra suspected that it was because of the excess of emotion, not the lack of.

Then, as if by some unseen command, both uttered the fateful words, " _Link Start!_ "

The last thing Lyra heard was Selim's voice, saying "I hate being blind" before she faded into darkness.

For as long as Selim could remember, he had always wanted to experience what others had taken for granted -sight. He had never understood the concept, never understood what it had meant, exactly. What were the so-called colors, what did it mean for something to "look like?"

He had lost vision at the age of two, and the doctors had told his parents that surgery would not fix his condition. For the longest time, the best case scenario for him had always been to live a long, happy life completely and utterly blind. The idea pained Selim. It was as if someone had put food in front of a child who had never tasted food in his entire life. He could smell the food, see it, but never taste it.

At the same time though, it is quite difficult to miss something that you have never had, which is why Selim had been able to push the hunger out of his mind. He had resolved to live life to its fullest potential without thinking about what could have been.

Yet the NerveGear changed all that. The NerveGear promised an out for him. It sent signals directly to the brain, so his eyes didn't matter. When he had first heard about it, it seemed too good to be true. Yet all his research had pointed to the fact that NerveGear would truly allow him to see again.

His thoughts turned to the present.

Selim had been waiting for this moment so long, but nothing could have prepared him for what was to come. His entire field of view, unchanged for sixteen years, shattered. His vision flashed. Was this… color?

Too shocked to comprehend anything, he could only look on, slack-jawed as "color" flooded into his eyes, into his mind. Nothing made sense. Everything seemed blurry. The brightness almost blinded him, forcing him to snap his eyes shut and cover them with his hands, palm digging deep into his sockets. Fear replaced anticipation as the newfound colors bored deep into his skull and cut through his thoughts like a cold, sharp knife.

" _Stop,_ " he whispered desperately. He could see now, but it was far more than he had bargained for. The color refused to stop its onslaught as it sliced through his palms and eyelids, making him whimper in pain. It overwhelmed his senses until it penetrated through the deepest recesses of his mind.

"Please stop!" he begged. "Help! Someone help! Lyra! Where are you?!" His sobs grew to hysterical measures until he could hear nothing but his own screams. Eventually, his cries died down as he curled up into a ball, accepting his fate.

Slowly, the piercing flashes died down until before settling into one monotone color. After what seemed like an eternity, Selim hesitantly uncovered his eyes and cracked open a single eyelid. What surrounded him was still blinding, but tolerable. He allowed his eyes to adjust. So this was sight, huh?

Directly ahead of him was a complex of weird configurations of color and… shapes? Selim traced the familiar pattern of a square onto his hand, a pattern he knew by heart, then looked at it with his newfound sight. He was shocked at first to see what his hands "looked" like. Like a baby seeing a new toy for the first time, he subject his hand, then the rest of his body, to close examination. He found that he could change his hand by moving it closer and further away from his face. He experimented and marvelled for a long time before turning to face the task at hand.

He had no idea what was going on. The one person that could help him was his sister. Therefore, he had to find Lyra. And to do that, he had to get past whatever facing him right now. From the descriptions of SAO and other games, he knew that he had arrived at the username creation stage. But how was he supposed to create a username?

He had figured out what squares looked like by tracing it onto his hand, then looking at the path that his finger took. And if the things in front of him were so-called "letters," then he would be able to figure out how to read them.

He knew how to read. He could read braille fluently and without error. Likewise, he knew the shapes of letters, as he had traced them on paper for countless hours when he had nothing better to do. Now all he had to do was apply the square tracing technique to letters…

For once in his life, Selim was thankful that he hadn't been born blind. He had read about studies of people being born blind regaining their vision, and promptly overwhelmed by sensory overload. Most had become depressed, and at least in one case, someone had committed suicide. Luckily, since the "visual centers" in Selim's brain had been somewhat developed before he had lost vision, he could theoretically have his vision return to normal. That was what he had been banking on when he signed up for SAO.

After painstakingly tracing letters onto his hand, trying to memorize the outline, then comparing that to the letters on the keyboard, Selim eventually could read off letters by sight. And after some more time, he could understand the words on the screen, which read "Please enter a username."

Taking a deep breath, Selim reached his hand forward, and using a single finger, carefully lined it with one of the letters, and pressed. He swore under his breath. He had pressed the wrong one by accident. Now where was the backspace?...

Finally, he had completed the first part of the trial. He had created a username, "Selim." He didn't want to risk making it any longer, otherwise he didn't know how long he would spend working on it. But he could feel himself making progress. The brightness no longer bothered him as much, and his hand-eye coordination was rapidly improving.

He was brought to another area where what appeared to be a human stood. But it was unmoving and cold. Then it hit him. This was _him._ This was _Selim._

For a moment, Selim stood, disbelieving, then rushed up to himself almost blindly. He examined every part of himself, touching and feeling the familiar patterns beneath his fingers. So this was what eyes looked like. This was a nose. This was a mouth. All the information flooded into him, leaving Selim gasping for air.

This was who he was. After sixteen years, he saw himself. It was frightening and welcoming at the same time. On one hand, he looked so alien. It was scary to think that he couldn't recognize himself. The person facing him didn't seem welcome or familiar. He had always thought that he would be able to instantly recognize himself if given the chance. It was a claim without evidence, but he had always clung onto that belief. Now he was face to face with evidence to the contrary. And it was terrifying.

Yet on the other hand, he finally _knew._ He _knew_ who he was now. This was _him._ This feeling of self-discovery was something that Selim had never felt before. It was as if a part of him had been missing, and he had finally found it.

Eventually, he deduced that he could change his avatar to fit his liking. Selim couldn't imagine changing anything about himself, so he pressed "Next" with no hesitation.

He found himself washed with brightness and color, and could feel himself becoming overwhelmed as he braced himself for the onset of panic. But it never came as he heard his name screamed and a pair of comforting arms wrap around him. A face buried itself into his shoulder.

"You can see," Lyra whispered, and Selim gave a mute nod. His throat felt dry, his tongue five sizes too big to speak properly. He contented himself with the comfort of his sister.

Eventually, she let go. He could see her figure now, but it was hard to process anything. He could make out the distinct shape of her head, arms, and legs, but not much else.

"I'm so sorry," Lyra said softly. "I didn't realize that you would have to go through all of that alone. It's all my fault."

Selim shook his head emphatically. "No," he choked out. "This is -this is the best thing that you've ever done for me. Thank you." She pulled him into a hug again, and he could feel a wetness at his shoulder where Lyra's face was buried. He felt tears forming in his eyes as well.

Selim wasn't sure how long they remained there. Eventually, they began the arduous task of helping Selim relearn everything. Red, white, green, big, small, short, tall, grass, dirt, eyes, sun, sky, tree, building, signs. Everything had to be relearned, and it hardly made sense to Selim. Perspective also seemed impossible for him to master. How was it that up close, things were "bigger" than from far away? He gave up on learning facial expressions as well. Those were far too difficult and nuanced for any former blind person to master in a short period of time. But Lyra assured him that he would learn everything eventually, and he took it to heart.

In a way, it was like learning another language. He already knew what grass was, or what a building was. He merely had to learn another way to perceive it. Easier said than done.

By the time the sky had turned red, which Lyra had informed him that it meant the day was ending, Selim was exhausted but ecstatic. Everything had made a little more sense, and he knew that he would one day view the world like anyone else. Unfortunately, it was time to log out. He glanced wistfully at the world that had provided him with a new life, a second chance. Soon, he would be forced to return back to darkness.

He shivered. Now that he knew what darkness was, he never wanted to return to it again. Casting one last look at the expanse of green, he swiped two fingers downwards as Lyra followed suit. "It's okay," she said comfortingly. "You can return whenever you want. I promise." Selim tried to smile at her, but his expression was pained.

He allowed Lyra to guide his finger to the "Logout" button before he felt her hand jerk abruptly and freeze. Selim knew something was wrong, but couldn't imagine what.

He heard her voice. "Mother fuc-"

 **And we done. Okay, so this was REALLY risky on my part. It was an experiment, remember?**

 **I had to do quite a bit of research to make this somewhat believable. It turned out meh.**

 **Not sure how Selim is gonna fight though. It's gonna be one hell of a ride with his depth perception and hand-eye coordination.**

 **Anyways, what do you think? I think the idea is pretty interesting, but execution? Rip me. First time doing such a thing. Thanks, be ready for future updates!**


	2. Chance Encounter

**We're back. Not much to say here, other than you should watch Darling in the Franxx**

Chapter 2: Chance Encounter with a Player of Questionable Behavior

"We're stuck here, aren't we?" asked Selim after ten minutes of Lyra frantically punching things into the menu had elapsed.

His sister huffed frustratedly, blowing a strand of her hair out of her face. "No we aren't. It's just weird that there's no logout button." She received a triumphant smirk from Selim.

" _Fine,_ we're stuck here for now. Happy now?" she huffed.

Despite their banter, Lyra wasn't unreasonably worried. Worst case scenario would be that her parents manually removed the NerveGear from their head when they found her unconscious. It just felt kind of strange to her that at the current moment, she was essentially a "prisoner" stuck in a jail cell, albeit a very pretty cell. And despite all her reassurances, she felt a slight chill spread across her back.

"Oh well," Lyra said in the most optimistic tone she could muster, "There's not much we can do about it right now, so we may as well continue where we left off." Selim seemed to perk up a little at those words, although Lyra was unsure as to why that might be. Carefully, she took her brother's hand and guided him across the field, pointing out potentially dangerous obstacles along the way.

There was a lot to teach Selim, and Lyra could feel his breathless excitement. For the first time, her brother could experience the world. And he was taking full advantage of that, constantly asking questions and putting names to things that were only abstract in his imagination before. With varying degrees of difficulty, Lyra managed to sate most of Selim's curiosity. However, there was one that she couldn't answer.

"What does it mean to be small?" he had asked.

"We-well," she stammered, knocked off balance by the seemingly simple inquiry. "It's like this blade of grass compared to me. It is smaller than me, because… because…" before trailing off.

Lyra thought for a long time, but simply could not return a satisfactory response. Eventually, she gave up with a sheepish grin and they returned to naming arbitrary objects in the world. Still, the question nagged at her mind as she constantly tried to think of a way to explain the word "small" to Selim.

Wrapped in the wonder and bliss of discovery, neither Selim nor Lyra had noticed the time. By then, another half hour had elapsed without any sign from moderators or the appearance of the logout button, and Lyra began to feel wary. For a game so widely advertised and praised, the absence of such a crucial feature seemed inconceivable.

Selim, too, seemed to sense that something was wrong, and turned to Lyra, but was cut off by a flashing blue light that erupted the ground, engulfing the two of them in its misty tendrils.

The chiming of bells sounded, accompanied by a monotone, female voice repeating "Forced System Teleport" over and over again until everything else ceased to exist. Lyra cried out in horror and squeezed her eyes shut as her body vanished. A faint breeze washed over the area where she once stood, erasing all signs of previous human activity, save for a tiny area of trampled grass.

Lyra opened her eyes to the sight of hundreds, no thousands, of players, all gathered in the center of the starting town. This event was no co The robotic voice had disappeared, but the words still rang fresh in Lyra's mind. Before she could utter a single word to express her confusion, a red, semi-transparent dome built of tiny hexagons swiftly rose up around the entire area, imprisoning them. A thick, bloodred liquid began to seep from the cracks, congealing into a massive, hooded figure that towered over the town and those congregated in it.

From her side came an audible whimper. Lyra numbly wrapped her arm around her brother, trying to reassure him, but it was all she could do not to panic. It wasn't just them either. From all around, a chorus of dissent, anger, and annoyance mixed with fear and terror, rose to a frenzied pace. Some shouted empty threats at the hooded figure. Others simply broke down crying. Either way, it was clear that the figure in front of them held all the cards.

Among the shouts and cries, the figure raised one bony hand into the air; as if held by magic, the ten thousand players fell silent, eyes and faces turned.

"Welcome to my world," the figure boomed. _His_ world? It didn't take long for the players to realize exactly who was standing in front of them.

Kayaba Akihiko.

The genius who had developed this game from scratch. The prodigy who had made VMMORPGs a reality. And he was standing only a few meters away from Lyra.

The silence shattered like glass. Cries rose up louder than before, each frenzied voice blending into another until they became a tide of indistinguishable sound that threatened to drown Lyra. Kayaba gazed calmly at the uproar, twitching not one muscle.

"As you probably have guessed, I am Kayaba Akihiko," he said, voice devoid of emotion. "As of this moment, I am the sole person in control of this world." Although no anger had dissipated from the player, all grew silent as a new emotion overtook them -awe.

 _If only my teachers had this kind of control,_ Lyra thought absently, gnawing on a fingernail.

Kayaba continued on, heedless of the change in atmosphere. "I'm sure you've already noticed that the logout button is missing. This is not a defect. I repeat, this is not a defect."

Selim could only make out red. Everywhere he looked, a dark, sickly red. No matter where he turned to, the color stained his vision and dripped down his eyelids, congealing into strange masses. This wasn't the sharp attack of the white of the loading screen. This red tried to smother him and drain him slowly of all life and vitality. Despite himself, he whimpered before kicking himself for being so weak.

He felt a comforting arm wrap around his shoulders, and for the millionth time in his life, Selim was glad that he had a sister. He tried to utter thanks, but his throat and tongue were dry Through the haze of red, an ominous shape began to form, though Selim couldn't quite make out what it was.

And then the world exploded.

Being blind meant that you had to compensate your lack of vision with other senses. Selim was remarkably adept at determining intricate textures through touch and his nose wasn't half bad either. But like most other blind people, the thing that Selim relied on most was his ears.

Just as most people develop their sense of sight, Selim developed his sense of hearing. In all those years of darkness, distinguishing between different sounds quite literally meant the difference between life or death. He could tell the difference between a FedEx truck and a UPS truck. He could make out soft whispers from conversations not meant for public ears. And there was a subtle but noticeable difference between a penny dropped in water versus a quarter dropped in water. Because of his sensitive hearing, he tended to avoid loud or crowded places, since the noise often became unbearable. It wasn't that those areas were too loud per se, rather that all the different words and conversations all at once tended to overwhelm him.

So when ten thousand cries rose up into the air, each voicing a new emotion, Selim became paralyzed on the spot. A tide of unrestrained sorrow, anger, hopelessness, washed over him and crashed over his ears.

His mind began to shut down in an effort to block out the noise. The world began to fade. Selim could no longer hear anything, see anything, do anything, think anything. His world became a blank canvas, devoid of any sight or sound.

Selim wasn't sure how long he remained in that state -an empty shell that could no longer respond to the outside world. Eventually though, he came to.

The first thing he saw was Lyra's arm still wrapped around him in the same position unmoving. With a start, he realized that his knuckles were white from clutching so tightly onto it. His fingernails dug into her skin, drawing fresh beads of blood.

He swore, releasing Lyra's arm and apologizing profusely. The noise had died down, and people were beginning to disperse. Something was off about everyone's attitude, though Selim was in no mood to pay attention to them.

Of more importance was Lyra, who had not moved or uttered a single word since Selim had awoken. Despite being unable to read her face, he felt shock and despair emanating from Lyra. Gently, he tugged at her arm that was still wrapped lifelessly around his shoulders.

"Lyra?" he prodded. He wasn't sure what could possibly have affected her that much. In general, anything short of the world ending didn't rattle Lyra, so Selim was quite worried about what Lyra had seen.

"I'm sorry," whispered Lyra, so soft that it was almost inaudible. "I'm sorry, Selim."

Selim looked at Lyra with concern, not quite knowing what she was apologizing for. "It's okay Lyra," he said gently. "Everything's going to be okay now."

"It's all my fault," breathed Lyra, as if she couldn't see or hear him.

Although the red had disappeared from the plaza, it still retained an ominous residue that didn't sit well with Selim. Without really knowing why, he knew that he needed to get out of there -fast. "C'mon Lyra," he coaxed. "Let's get out of here."

She continued to mutter apologies and bits of incoherent thought, but Selim tried to ignore it for now, continuing to reassure that everything was fine. Inch by inch, he managed to guide her away from the square to an empty field and helped her sit. Lyra's movements were robotic and devoid of life like an automaton taking orders from a punch card.

For Selim, who had always been protected and helped by Lyra, he wanted to repay all of her kindness and love. He had always been the weak one, and Lyra had taken the role of his knight with grace and no complaints. All those times she had guided him, saved him from dangers, helped him come to terms with the world.

Yet here, when Lyra was truly in trouble, he could do nothing but watch. He couldn't log her out even if he had tried, as the button was still missing. Selim wasn't sure how long Lyra was going to remain in that vacant state, but he vowed to stay by her side and doing everything he could to help. It was the least he could do.

He sat besides the stiff girl, rambling on about nonsense, more for his benefit than anything else. Selim was worried. What if Lyra never woke up?

 _It's fine,_ he reassured himself. _Worst comes to worst, I'll just wait for the logout button and log her out._ That conclusion didn't satisfy him though as anxiousness gnawed a large hole in his chest.

The sun had set all the way below the horizon now, but thanks to some game mechanic, he could still make out the outlines of objects. Especially with the green cursor over the head of players, it was rather difficult to get lost.

Too late he remembered reading that mobs had a higher spawn rate at night as he heard the rustle of grass and a growl sound from behind him. Almost out of pure instinct, he dived sideways, evading a snarling wolf that had sank its jaws into the air where he was a second ago.

Selim drew his sword with trembling hands, gripping the handle until his hands hurt. He had never done combat in his life, nor had he ever tried out the SAO sword skills, so there was only really one way that this would go down. He knew that if things got bad, he would just respawn at the beginning, and Lyra would likely follow, yet somehow, he hated that outcome.

For his entire life, Selim had been weak, always relying on others. And for the first time, right now, he had the ability to save others. No matter the outcome, he wouldn't go down with a fight.

The wolf snarled and leapt again, and Selim barely had time to dodge. Still, he wasn't fast enough as he felt claws scrape his right arm, leaving a bloody trail it is wake. The SAO pain absorbers were only so effective, as hurt shot through his arm.

Selim began to panic, swinging his sword wildly in hopes of landing a hit. The wolf easily avoided his weak slashes and sank its teeth into Selim's left leg. Thrashing, he managed to shake the wolf off, sending it flying as it crumpled against a tree in a dazed heap. Through his foggy vision, a lights flashed in the top right corner of his vision.

It was too optimistic to hope that the wolf had died. Already, it had begun picking itself up and shaking off the stun effect. Gritting his teeth, Selim braced his sword and hardened his resolve. He would not lose. The pain from his arm and leg began to fade as the world around him began to sharpen in a way that seemed completely unique to Selim.

His vision began to dull, fading almost into a total black. Yet the world became more clear at the same time. The rustle of leaves, the soft breeze, the taste of wet earth, the hissing of steel, and the ragged breaths of the wolf became apparent.

Selim heard the padding of its steps, the dead leaves crunching under its feet. Twenty meters, fifteen, ten, and then the _whoosh_ as it began its leap. Selim's senses took over, positioning the sword exactly where he knew the wolf would attack, meeting its gnashing teeth and claws with the smooth metal of his blade.

Blocked perfectly.

The wolf refused to let go though, as it pressed against the flat of Selim's sword, lunging for his throat. Selim tried to push back, but could feel himself giving ground. He simply did not have the strength necessary to block the killing blow. He kicked himself mentally for arrogantly meeting the monster head on.

The claws found their way into his chest and began pressing into his skin. Lights erupted from the top right of his vision.

Realizing his inevitable death, Selim heaved a heavy sigh. He was too weak as usual to protect anyone. He had been unable to defeat even a simple wolf. Resigned, he let the claws push deeper into his skin. It'd be a pain to start all the way from the beginning, but he'd make do. Loud chimes indicated that he was nearing dangerous levels of hp.

Then, a brown flash followed by the sound of ringing bells burst into the air. Surprisingly, the weight had disappeared from his sword. The first thing he thought of was that Lyra had awoken and defeated the wolf.

Yet a glance revealed that she was still sitting on the hill, her cursor green, emotionless and stiff.

His vision began to return to normal again. Peering at the brown, hooded figure, he was unable to distinguish anything about it at all.

"Um, thank you for saving me," he said, bowing.

The figure removed its hood, revealing a face. With the darkness and his poor eyesight though, Selim couldn't make out much else.

"Good ta meet ya!" the figure said cheerfully. It was evidently a female, close to Selim's age. "The name's Argo. Oh, and by the way? Ya owe me a favor, got it?"

Selim could only gape and nod.

 **On a completely unrelated note, I actually chose the names Selim and Lyra randomly. It worked out ridiculously well somehow. Selim is from FMA, and he does shadows. Lyra means light. Selim is blind. Lyra is his light. WTF I'm a genius and I don't even know it**

 **Also, as I've said multiple times, school is a bitch. I literally just flunked a precalc test because I was too busy watching anime. AP tests are over now though, so I can probably write more. Wish me luck boys (and girls. Who can forget the girls)!**

 **Also, anyone catch a VERY small fma reference? Hint: not selim's name**


End file.
